Lesotho volleyball champs Red Skins glad for African Club Championship learning experience

Red Skins battled Africa's best volleyball clubs in Egypt

Lesotho volleyball champions Red Skins say they learned a lot from their recent experience at the 2018 Men’s African Club Championship.

Red Skins finished 24th out of 24 teams at the continental championships which were held in Egypt from March 27 to April 4 but say they will use the outing to improve.

Red Skins qualified for the tournament by claiming third place at the 2017 African Zone 6 Club Championships in December and the trip to Egypt was Red Skins’ and Lesotho’s first appearance at the continental volleyball games since 2011.

Things didn’t go as planned, however.

Red Skins were drawn in Group A against Prisons from Kenya, Uganda’s Nemo Stars, Espoir of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast’s AS Police and record 13-time champions, Al Ahly from Egypt.

Red Skins were overmatched all the way through. They lost each group game 3-0 and finished bottom of the group.

Following their group stage performance Red Skins were demoted to the placing competition where they lost to Port of Cameroon in the playoff for 17th position before eventually falling to Finances of Benin in the match to determine last place.

Nevertheless, Red Skins coach Tšepo Raletooane said the team gave their best.

“We were in one of the toughest groups against the heavyweights and the level of competition was very high. We gave it our all but unfortunately we lost,” he said.

Raletooane added that the experience of the African Club Championship was priceless.

“We come back home with this experience and we will use it to build Red Skins into a better side going forward,” he said. “All the teams that were in our group had played in this tournament at least five times in a row so you can just imagine the huge gap between them and us.”

"It was a good learning experience."

Raletooane, however, also pointed to the side’s poor preparations due to a lack of funding as a reason for Red Skins finishing with the wooden spoon.

“We tried to prepare but unfortunately our performance reflected how we prepared. Clearly, we did not prepare as well as our opponents,” he said.

Nonetheless, Red Skins experienced a stage in Egypt that they rarely encounter. For example, in the local Metropolitan premier volleyball league the side often play their games in front of a handful of spectators.

Red Skins’ group stage game against eventual African Club Championship champions and home favourites Al Ahly was played in front of 2000 people.

Red Skins’ group stage results:

Group A

		P	W	L	Pts.
1	Ahly (Egypt)	5	5	0	15
2	Prisons (Kenya)	5	4	1	12
3	Espoir (DR Congo)	5	3	2	9
4	Nemo Stars (Uganda)	5	2	3	5
5	As Police (Ivory Cost)	5	1	4	4
6	Red Skins (Lesotho)	5	0	5	0

Date	Match	Sets			Total Points	Time	Audience
		1	2	3
27 March	Prisons 3-0 Red Skins	25-15	25-14	25-22	75-51	1:15	300
28 March	Nemo 3-0 Red Skins	25-21	25-19	25-13	75-53	1:18	20
29 March	Red Skins 0-3 Espoir	14-25	22-25	19-25	55-75	1:20	50
30 March	Ahly 3-0 Red Skins	25-5	25-9	25-16	75-30	1:05	2,000
31 March	Red Skins 0-3 AS Police	17-25	19-25	14-25	50-75	1:18	50